Drawn by Love

Dear Reader,

I hope you are doing well at this given point in time. Whether you are or whether you are not, I’ve got good news for you: GOD LOVES YOU!

This single truth of God’s love eludes me from time to time. Before I find myself, I am trying to perform once again for a God who feels so far away. I’ve got a bend in my spirit away from the love of God.

You might have this bend as well. It can be due to past hurts and disappointments, but whatever the reason we can be comforted that the Word of God tells us that He loves us.

1 Peter 5:7 NLT: “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”

God cares about you!

Romans 5:5 NLT: “For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

God dearly loves us and the Holy Spirit fills our hearts with his love!

Jeremiah 31:3 NLT: “Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.”

God loves us with an everlasting, unfailing love!

But what is the love of God? Is it the same as our human love? Wayne Grudem defines love as “the giving of yourself for the benefit of others.” God is “eternally giving himself for our benefit.” God loves us with the greatest love there is:

1 John 4:10 NLT: “This is real love — not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”

John 15:13 NLT: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Jesus has demonstrated the ultimate love by dying on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins! He died for us when we were still at our worst, most dirty, most filthy in all our sins.

Romans 5:8 NLT: “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Dear fellow sinner, Jesus died for you and me! Wow! Paul took the cross of Jesus and made the love of God very personal to himself:

Galatians 2:20 NLT “So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Now all of us can say, “Jesus loves me!”

John 3:16 NLT: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

We will not perish! If we believe in Him and follow Him, we will have eternal life! And what is eternal life?

John 17:3 NLT: 'Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.'

Eternal life is about knowing God! We will spend eternity in awe of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We will forever get to know Him better. He is so majestic, the angels have to cover their faces with their wings. They fall in awe before Him. This is our portion! He is our treasure.

I often struggle to imagine that God is pleased with me. This is another bend. Scripture again speaks against my bend:

Zephaniah 3:16-17 NLT: "He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

God delights in us with gladness! He rejoices over us with joyful songs!

God longs to have a loving relationship with us. He has done everything he can to bring us close.

Colossians 1:22 NLT “As a result [of the Cross], he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”

Jesus’ cross has brought us into his own presence! We are HOLY and BLAMELESS as we stand before him without a single fault.

Dear Reader,

Let this matter be forever settled in our hearts. God loves us! This love is steadfast!

Romans 8:38-39 NLT: “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

May these Scriptures anchor us just like the sails of a ship also need to be anchored to harness the wind.

May the love of Christ dwell richly in our hearts. May we share His love with others.